A House Divided
by Yoster
Summary: Ever-troubled Zero is having recurring nightmares of being ordered to kill his only true friend. Will life imitate dream? [PG13 for language, violence, and heavy drama.] Please R&R.
1. Epilogue: "I had the nightmare again..."

A House Divided  
Authored by Yoster  
Authored on 2 April, 2001 11.37 PM, PST  
All characters herein copyright their respective owners.  
Author's Note  
I'll admit, I don't know/remember that much about the Megaman X series, so if there's any small errors in terminology, etc. feel free to (politely!) let me know, and I'll make the appropriate changes.  
  
chapter one  
  
"NO!"  
  
Zero awoke and shot upright with a start.  
  
The clock on the night stand read 3.57 AM, but the time was of little consequence. He had the nightmare again.  
  
"*groan* That makes, what, 8 nights in a row?" Zero asked himself quietly while dropping his head back on the pillow.  
  
He had the nightmare again. Zero stared at the dark ceiling and ran through it in his mind, as he had done for every night for over a week.  
  
~dream~  
  
"NO! I won't! You can't make me! I don't care what the consequences are!"  
  
An agitated Zero sat on a plain wooden chair, under a dim ceiling lamp, flanked by two large, heavily armed reploids. A large wooden desk was opposite him. Behind it sat Dr. Cain, who was staring intensely at him.  
  
"Zero, we've gone over this from every possible angle with the security commission." Cain tossed a folder marked 'Alternatives' on the desk. "All other plans of action have a probability of success of less than .5%. This is the only plausible way, and you're the only one who can possibly do it."  
  
"I don't care what the odds are! If there's another way to do it, then that's the way I'm going to do it!" Zero rose up violently to storm out, but the two security reploids sat him down once again. "After all he's done for us, this is the best you can come up with? This is it?!"  
  
"Once again, Zero, we have no choice." The doctor leaned back in his chair. "X has and has access to some of the most sensitive information to our cause. Now that he's been..." Cain stopped to search for a proper word. "...compromised, we must contain whatever intellectual damage we have sustained already! I'm angry and worried that the situation hasn't been remedied already, but you're the only one skilled enough to..." He stopped.  
  
Zero met him with a cold, angry stare. He knew what the doctor was going to say, but every time he said it, it came as a surprise and a shock.  
  
"...to eliminate him."  
  
~dream~  
  
Zero sighed and shut his eyes. It would be a long night.  
  
-the next morning-  
  
"Zee-ro! *knockknock*"  
  
Zero rolled over to face the clock. 7.50 AM.  
  
"Ugh, morning already?" He thought. "And damn! I'm gonna be late again!"  
  
"Zero? *knock* C'mon, we're gonna be late!" The knocking continued.  
  
"Yeah, yeah!" Zero finally shouted at the door, jumping out of bed and readying his armor. "I'm almost ready, just shut up for a sec, wouldja?"  
  
Zero stopped and waited for a reply.  
  
... ... ...  
  
"*knockknock* Are-ya ready yet?"  
  
Zero rolled his eyes and went about finishing his morning preparations. He opened the door to the hallway, and found X waiting.  
  
"Finally, slowpoke!" X grinned at Zero and started to walk down the hall.  
  
Zero threw him an unamused snarl, shut the door behind him, and left to follow X.  
  
"You've really got to stop oversleeping, Zero." X scolded him. "Are you okay? I've had to wake you up for the past week or so..."  
  
"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine, yeah." Zero quickly moved to change the subject. "Any idea on what this morning's meeting is gonna be about?"  
  
"Not a clue." X opened the outside door. "I haven't tuned in to any of the emergency bands since we got off duty last night."  
  
Zero frowned at his friend's oversight, but stopped when he realized that he hadn't either. "Oh, well. I love surprises anyway." He forced a smile.  
  
The two hunters continued their idle chatter until they reached the situation room for the morning briefing.  
  
Dr. Cain sat at the head of the table, as always, and finished preparing his notes of Maverick activity over the past 24 hours.  
  
"People? People, please, let's get this meeting started." Cain attempted to quiet the noisy gathering of reploids and humans.  
  
The meeting slowly came to order, and, en masse, turned to face the doctor and the large view screen behind him.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to report minimal Maverick activity over the past day, aside from the usual skirmishes with local law enforcement." He brought up a map of the surrounding areas, which, aside from a few red dots, was colored a bright green. "You're all doing great work, and I'm very proud of our progress."  
  
He began to clap, and the rest of the room followed politely.  
  
"Finally," X whispered to Zero, "A day off! I barely remember the last time we didn't have to go on duty, this is so cool!"  
  
Zero snorted back, trying to quiet the excited X, as Dr. Cain had began to speak again.  
  
"So, therefore, I'm pleased to announce that all Hunter forces are given the day-" A loud alarm interrupted his speech, and the view screen sprung to life, zooming in on downtown, now flashing red. "Hmm?"  
  
"alert. maverick activity reported in sector 329. hostages taken. law enforcement is en route, and is requesting hunter assistance." A monotonous message emanated from the overhead speakers and was scrolled on screen.  
  
X shut his eyes and cursed silently. Zero smirked, as he knew the almost-day off was too good to be true. He rose to address the room.  
  
"Me and X will assess the situation, doc." Zero nudged the sullen blue reploid with his elbow. "If we need reinforcements, we'll radio back with further information."  
  
"Not bloody likely." He added in his head.  
  
"Of course, Zero." Cain brought up video newsfeeds from crews already on scene. A tourbus was stopped in the middle of an intersection, and was surrounded by a few low-level Maverick toadies. "Doesn't look like they'll give you guys too much trouble. You'd better get going."  
  
"*sigh* Yes, sir." X rose and followed Zero outside. "A Hunter's duty is never done."  
  
"Cut the semantics, X," Zero readied to make the jump to the hotzone. "And teleport already."  
  
Zero blinked out in a flash of red, and, with one more frustrated frown, X followed suit. 


	2. "This time would be no different... righ...

A House Divided, chapter two  
Authored by Yoster  
Authored on 8 April, 2001 10.30 PM, PST  
All characters herein copyright their respective owners.  
2nd Author's Note (added 8 April, 2001, 9.53 PM, PST)  
I've only played (and plan to play at the time being) the first 2 MMXes, and will take my artistic license where I see fit. Furthermore, I was never any good at battle scenes, so proceed with caution.  
  
chapter two  
  
X and Zero flashed in just behind the protective line of squad cars, and Zero approached the man who seemed to be the commanding officer.  
  
"What seems to be the problem, officer?" X commented from behind him, and began to snicker. Zero flashed him another angry glare.  
  
The officer also looked unamused, and began to address the pair, picking up a paper-filled clipboard.  
  
"Mavericks." The officer looked at his clipboard. "They've taken hostages in that tour bus over there."  
  
He motioned to a bus stopped crookedly in the middle of the intersection, surrounded by Mavs ready to fight.  
  
"So, we figured we'd leave the dirty work to the real professionals before we tried anything rash ourselves." The officer nodded to the hunters and summed everything up. "We'd like you to take 'em out."  
  
Zero grinned and glanced at his Z Saber. He could sit through all the boring meetings, the tedious training, the volumes of absurd rules and convoluted regulations. This was the part of the job he loved.  
  
"Well, I suppose we could, but shouldn't we try negotiating or something first?" X rubbed the back of his helmet uneasily and uncomfortably. Zero responded angrily.  
  
"But nothing." He continued. "A Mav's a Mav. Jeez, you're getting too soft, X." Zero really hated to be so harsh on X, but he had always had trouble not being a total ass to anyone, including his best friend.  
  
X opened his mouth to retort once again, but this time the officer broke in. "Excuse me gentlemen, but our time is short. They may be getting nervous now with you guys here, and might try something desperate, stupid, or both."  
  
Zero nodded and nudged X, who gave a quick nod as well. After all, it was his duty to hunt Mavericks, and this time it would be no different. Right?  
  
X's thoughts were interrupted by Zero's assessment of the situation. "Evenly divided on both sides of the bus, how amateurish." Zero finished scanning the area, and laid down the battle plan. "Right then, simple 'Divide and Conquer' technique, and the divide part is already done for us!"  
  
Zero was a bit bummed. They could make these sorts of situations more difficult. They were facing off against Mavericks after all.  
  
"Ready, bud?" Zero raised a determined fist, and X nodded, ready for action. "On the count of three. One... two..."  
  
"THREE!"  
  
Zero brought out his blazing saber, X charged his buster, and with a simultaneous click of dash boots, they flew into battle.  
  
Maverick after Maverick fell before the slashes and blasts, barely having time to take a shot at the hunters. It was a debacle.  
  
Zero had nearly finished clearing his side of the bus, but X lost sight of the remaining Maverick and stopped to scan the area.  
  
Seizing the chance created by the break in the action, a crazed mother with her child in tow took the insane risk of making a break for it, darting out the door, despite the excellent progress X and Zero were making in rectifying the situation.  
  
"No! Ma'am, don't!" A police officer shouted from the line. But it was too late. The final Maverick had already noticed the fleeing pair and leapt from his hiding place to attack.  
  
The child froze completely with fear as the gun toting robot flew straight at him, his mother screaming desperately for him to run.  
  
The Maverick got close enough for the child to hear the low hum of a charged plasma weapon for just an instant.  
  
A bright flash of light, and the assailant was a million bits of shrapnel. The child covered his face as chunks of armor nicked and cut his exposed flesh.  
  
The mother ran back and picked up her child. She wept maniacally, the child was still frozen, battered and bloody, but otherwise okay.  
  
X stood a distance away from them, his blaster still raised and smoking. He grinned a bit at a job well done as officers rushed the mother and son and began to lead them to an ambulance. The other tourists, a bit shaken, began to vacate the bus, towards the waiting medical personnel.  
  
He walked to meet the pair before they boarded an ambulance, and the mother thanked him profusely, then urged her son to do the same.  
  
The cut and bruised child looked first curiously, then intensely at the blue bomber, covered in the fluid and loose bits of destroyed enemies. X gave him a kind smile.  
  
The child continued to stare at the battle-worn bot for a second, then immediately broke out in tears and yelled repeatedly, "MAKE THE MEAN ROBOT GO AWAY MOMMY!" He kicked and screamed in extreme terror. The rescue workers quickly placed him in the ambulance and shut the doors, departing for the hospital quickly. But X still stood, a chilling realization paralyzing him.  
  
Zero had finished discussing matters with the commanding officer, when he heard the kid's screams, and began to walk over. It wasn't long before he realized what had just occurred. A look of concern and pity crossed his face.  
  
Zero slowly walked up behind the trembling X, who was still standing motionless. He slowly and uneasily reached his hand out to hold the now trembling hunter's shoulder. Shaking slightly, Zero made contact and X spun around. They stared deeply at each other, X's eyes shimmering with the beginning of tears, standing completely silent.  
  
...  
  
Zero, his mind racing, searched desperately for the right words. What seemed like an eternity passed before he slowly opened his mouth to speak.  
  
"Um, hey, you sure freaked him out, huh? I mean, heh, him shouting mom-" Zero didn't get a chance to finish his bungled attempt at comforting X, as he was shut up by a blow to the mouth.  
  
Zero stumbled a few steps back, completely stunned.  
  
"Just... just SHUT UP!" X broke out in tears and teleported away in a half-enraged, half-devastated manner.  
  
"...." Zero touched his hand to his mouth and looked at it to find crimson smeared on his fingers. "*sigh* Damn, I was never good at that sort of thing."  
  
A frustrated clench of his fist, a bright flash of red, and he was away to report to Dr. Cain, for the first time in quite a long time without his best friend and comrade-in-arms, X. 


	3. "I don't want to fight anymore."

A House Divided, chapter three  
Authored by Yoster  
Authored on 18 April, 2001 11.25 PM, PST  
All characters herein copyright their respective owners.  
3rd Author's Note (added 19 April, 2001, 12.46 AM, PST)  
I appreciate the positive responses to my work, it makes the whole process all the more worthwhile. If the addition of chapters seems rather few and far apart, it's because I don't begin work until some event in my life triggers some inspiration, I don't force it, look for it, or even listen for its knock at the door. I wait for it to punch me in the face!  
  
chapter three  
  
Morning broke. X stretched his huddled body, under the cool darkness of a thicket of trees. It had been about eighteen hours since he went AWOL, but he couldn't care less about the time.  
  
The faint sound of traffic could be heard at a distance, but the spot where X had ended up was as isolated as you could get in a megalopolis such as this.  
  
"*groan* Oooh," he ran his hands through his matted hair, and combed out some of the debris that one would expect from sleeping on the bare ground. "Hmm?"  
  
X noticed what he was doing, and realized that his helmet had gone missing. As well as large chunks of the rest of his armor set.  
  
"I must have... lost them somewhere last night..." The events following the previous day's incident were a blur to X.  
  
~eighteen hours earlier~  
  
The Maverick got close enough for the child to hear the low hum of a charged plasma weapon for just an instant.  
  
A bright flash of light, and the assailant was a million bits of shrapnel. The child covered his face as chunks of armor nicked and cut his exposed flesh.  
  
...  
  
The child continued to stare at the battle-worn bot for a second, then immediately broke out in tears and yelled repeatedly, "MAKE THE MEAN ROBOT GO AWAY MOMMY!" He kicked and screamed in extreme terror. The rescue workers quickly placed him in the ambulance and shut the doors, departing for the hospital quickly. But X still stood, a chilling realization paralyzing him.  
  
...  
  
"Just... just SHUT UP!" X broke out in tears and teleported away in a half-enraged, half-devastated manner.  
  
X didn't even bother to check where the teleport would take him, he had just punched in a random coordinate. He ended up in some God-awful back alley, miles from anywhere he should be.  
  
X clutched both sides of his head, trying to make sense of it all. His mind was filled to overflowing with rationalizations, anger, reasons, depression, realizations, horror, regret, confusion, denial, hate. He stumbled from place to place, no memory or care of where he had been, no rhyme nor reason of where he was going. The child monopolized his thoughts.  
  
"Am I... really..." X struggled to sort out his thoughts, "A... A monster?" He couldn't comprehend it, yet he completely understood.  
  
Passers-by eyed the haggard reploid as he staggered down sidewalks and across avenues. Hour upon hour passed. Soon the streets were crowded with evening rushers.  
  
Some whispered, "Is that a Maverick?" and, "Don't get near him, he looks unstable." This only served to send X deeper into his own personal hell.  
  
"Have I become..." Another message came together in his head, "...what I swore to destroy?" Rage enveloped him, and he threw his helmet angrily in a fleeting trashcan, and stumbled on, eyes nearly glowing crimson. Entire city blocks became blurs. The surroundings took on a natural look, but he still didn't know or care where he was.  
  
"NO!" X roared, almost like a wild animal, the rage grabbing hold of his battered mind. "I CAN'T BE A MONSTER! I CAN'T BE EVIL! I CAN'T BE A MAVERICK!" He lurched through patches of dense foliage, knocking off bits and pieces off his armor, but he continued on, eventually crumpling to his knees and breaking out in tears, completely drained of physical and mental strength. "*sob* ...can I?" He then passed out.  
  
~the next morning~  
  
X shook his head. He didn't exactly want to remember what had happened.  
  
"Can I..." The last of what he had said slowly came back to him. "...."  
  
X tore off the remainder of his armor and straightened out the clothes he had worn beneath them. Finding the whole of his protection would take hours, but he didn't really care to find them anyway. He came to his buster. Ripping it off, X threw it as far as he was able, a soft thud emanating from a far corner of the area.  
  
"I can't go back." X figured aloud. "They wouldn't have me. Besides..."  
  
X began the walk to parts unknown. "...I don't want to fight anymore."  
  
  
~18 hours earlier, at Hunter HQ~  
  
"YOU'VE WHAT?!" An enfuriated Dr. Cain slammed both of his fists on the table.  
  
Zero stood at a distance with a calm exterior, but inside he was a raging torrent. He wanted to find his best friend just as bad, if not worse, than anyone. "I've lost track of X, sir." He nodded tersely, not even realizing that he had called the Doctor 'Sir' for the first time in years. "He teleported away after... after..." What followed would be hard to explain.  
  
"After..." Cain leaned forward over the table, placing both hands on it. "WHAT?"  
  
Dr. Cain was usually a very agreeable man, but in times of severe crisis, all that went out the window, and in came a cold, heartless dictator, one who didn't see reploids as people, but as assets, and one who had always hated Zero and his ways.  
  
"A child called him a monster, sir." Zero knew that this sounded absurd, but it was the truth. "And that devastated him, at which point he left the scene via teleport to an unknown location, sir." Zero was too busy sorting out what had happened in his mind to give much thought to what he was saying, or how he was saying it. His basic military training showed.  
  
"A child?" The Doctor almost laughed incredulously. "Called X a monster?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"So he ran away?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"And why haven't we found him yet?"  
  
"He's disabled his communicator and locator devices, sir."  
  
Zero was angered that Cain thought X was that stupid. He obviously didn't want to be found.  
  
"This is incredible!" Cain flailed his arms in infinite anger and frustration. "In-fucking-credible!"  
  
Zero was taken aback, Dr. Cain usually frowned upon vulgarity, but he was quite beyond the bounds of polite conversation at this point.  
  
"The best God-damned hunter in the world, and he vanishes because some four year old brat calls him a name?!" Anger was compounded upon anger.  
  
"...second best..." Zero mumbled to himself, a bit too loudly. Even in times of crisis, he was still a bit of an ass.  
  
"SHUT UP!!" Cain threw his glasses down and stormed over to him in one swift motion, and eyed the crimson hunter nose to nose, a feat which few had lived to tell about. "I want you..." Dr. Cain struggled to supress his anger. "To FIND X... and I want you to find him..."  
  
He paused, shaking violently.  
  
"Find him when, sir?" Zero responded as a good soldier might.  
  
"NOW!" Cain slapped him across the face. All the occupants in the room gasped. "I WANT YOU TO FIND HIM NOW, GOD-DAMNIT!"  
  
Zero was at the boiling point. His best friend was missing, and probably hated him now. His commander was effectively insane, and hated him now more than ever. He had been punched, he had been slapped, he had been patronized. Worst of all, he had called Dr. Cain 'Sir.'  
  
The room stared at Zero, ready for him to literally explode in a raging inferno of anger.  
  
It took all of his will, but Zero mustered an intense nod. Now was not the time to compound the Hunters' problems. Cain would get his soon enough. Right now, X was the main concern.  
  
"Now," Everyone prepared for another auditory barrage, but the Doctor just stared angrily at Zero, and hissed. "Get the hell out of my sight."  
  
~that morning, at Hunter HQ~  
  
Zero had spent the entire night, and his entire reserve of strength, searching for his friend. Some people had reported a shady-looking robot making his way through the city, but X's path seemed random at best. Rather than face another one of Dr. Cain's barrages, one that the good doctor might not escape unscathed from, Zero returned, exhausted, directly to his quarters.  
  
"Damn it, X." He threw aside his armor frustratedly and flopped down in his bunk. "Where are you?"  
  
Laying in his bed in his street clothes, too exhausted to even get out of them, he rolled over to go to sleep, but an object in his pocket pressed on his thigh.  
  
Zero's eyes widened as he came to a sudden realization. He leaped out of bed and fished the item out of his shorts. Eyeing it, he smacked himself in the forehead.  
  
"And they call him naive." Zero chuckled to himself. "I just hope he hasn't gotten rid of the damn thing." Zero began to dial.  
  
It was a simple civilian cellphone. 


	4. "To hell with my purpose."

A House Divided, chapter four  
Authored by Yoster  
Authored on 8 May, 2001 10.32 PM, PST  
All characters herein copyright their respective owners.  
4th Author's Note (added 8 May, 2001, 11.36 PM, PST)  
Like I said, few and far between. It took a while, but I finally got the guts to but my proverbial pen to paper once more and tack on yet another chapter to my humble little story. Don't even ask about chapter five, but rest assured, it's always on my back burner.  
  
chapter four  
  
"ring-ring!" X was wandering around in the park, wondering what he would do with his new found freedom, and was startled by the sudden chirping of the phone in his pocket. Only one person knew his private number.  
  
"Shit!" He damned the luck that made him forget what he had in his pocket. "Even if it was him, there's nothing he could say..."  
  
X let it ring, hoping that the caller would give up. Maybe it was just a telemarketer, or a wrong number. But the ringing continued, unabated.  
  
"Rrgh!" X clenched his teeth, tore the phone out of his pocket, punched a button, and stuck it to his face. "What do you want?"  
  
"X!" Zero almost dropped the phone in surprise. "X! Where the hell have you been?!"  
  
"Thinking."  
  
"You're not still on that whole 'monster' thing, are you?"  
  
"It wasn't just a damn 'thing', you know."  
  
Zero kicked himself. He was trying to get X to come back, not piss him off. "I know."  
  
"You know what's funny?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"That you help and save humans for years, and at the end of the day, you're just another bucket of bolts with a gun to them."  
  
"You know that's not true."  
  
"Do I? Tell me, how'd Dr. Cain take my unscheduled leave?"  
  
Zero grimaced. X knew Cain as well as he did, and knew quite well how he would react in a situation like this.   
  
"...not well."  
  
"He wasn't concerned with my well being, was he?"  
  
"Not in so many words..."  
  
"He wasn't concerned with my feelings, was he?"  
  
"Well, he didn't say..."  
  
"He wasn't concerned with me in any capacity other than a weapon, was he?"  
  
"X, you and I both know..."  
  
"Yes! You and I do both know that we're second class citizens to him. You and I both know that he'd rather have a reploid cleaning the floors than a human. You and I both know that he took Dr. Light's technology and used it for financial gain."  
  
"Well, there was no way he could have known..."  
  
"Bull. I was buried in the ground with big red warnings for 30 years for a reason, you know."  
  
"X! If he would have known, then he would have-"  
  
"What? Left me there? To lie buried forever?"  
  
Zero couldn't fathom a reply to this. He was trapped in a corner. He waited for what X had to say next.  
  
"You and I are both the same, Zero. We both have feelings, wants, desires..."  
  
"Yeah..." Zero wasn't used to not being in control of a conversation, so he just followed where X led him, hoping for some concrete answers.  
  
"Unfortunately, as reploids, parameters, functions, and obligations are all that matters. And I for one am sick of it."  
  
"And what are you going to do about it, X?" Zero was getting angry with the runaround his friend was giving him. "What the HELL are you going to do about it?"  
  
"I'm going to stop fighting. To hell with my 'purpose.' I was designed to be as human as any other human, not to be a gun with legs."  
  
Zero was certainly in no position to tell X to get his ass back to HQ, but he certainly wasn't going to be dragged along like this, so he struggled for a plan of attack, sending the conversation in another, hopefully more fruitful direction. "Dr. Cain told me to find you and bring you back. He didn't say you had to be willing to come back."  
  
"Is that a threat, Zero?"  
  
"Take it as you will, I've been given orders to get you back here."  
  
"And then what?"  
  
"...I-I don't know. It's up to Cain. I've just been told to-" Zero was shaken. He had to threaten his best friend? What was going on?  
  
"Fuck Cain. And fuck you too if you're going to be his puppet."  
  
Zero was as stunned as he was from X's punch in the face. The silence was deafening.  
  
"Are you going to leave me alone?"  
  
"X, you know I-"  
  
"Are you?"  
  
Zero, for the first time he could remember, didn't have the answer he needed. He felt a sting in his lip, and blurted out:  
  
"...it still hurts, you know. My face."  
  
"-click." The line went dead.  
  
"DAMN IT!" Zero threw the phone at the wall, and it shattered into pieces.  
  
He sat upon the bed, put his face into his hands and began to cry.  
  
"X.." Zero wished with all his being that X could hear him. "X... I'm... I-"  
  
The door burst off its hinges, and a swarm of security repolids seized the fallen hunter.  
  
"What the hell?!" Zero struggled, but he was without his blaster, armor, or saber, and wouldn't be able to get very far if he succeeded. He stood still.  
  
Dr. Cain hobbled in. "We've been listening to your little convo with X, Zero."  
  
Zero yelled at himself in his mind for not checking for bugs and taps. In a situation this serious, Cain would look for any leads he could, and he knew full well how close he and X were, and the likely chance they had a way to communicate 'off the record.'  
  
"Ignoring the fact that you LIED to be saying you couldn't contact X..."  
  
Zero couldn't deny this, but he didn't intend to lie. Not completely, anyway.  
  
"...You've had unauthorized contact with a Maverick, and that is completely unacceptable."  
  
Zero looked up angrily and attempted to charge the hunched figure, only to be slammed against the wall by his captors. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'MAVERICK?'"  
  
"Upon listening to X's responses, the security commission and I have come to the conclusion that he has been somehow infected with an advanced type of the Maverick virus."  
  
Zero's mind spun with the possibility.  
  
"X did attack me, but it was just a punch... X did speak as Mavericks often did about Reploids and humans, but he had good reason... X was refusing to fight for the hunters, but he didn't say he was against us... How could he... Where might have... When did... Why..." Thoughts upon thoughts pounded upon his psyche.  
  
"Your silence indicates I'm understood." The doctor bridged his fingers. "Now then, we have much to plan and discuss. Come." He signaled the security to bring Zero.  
  
"Plan what?" He veinly struggled against the robots. This was getting a bit too familiar.  
  
Cain left without a word, proceeding into his office, a distressed Zero in involuntary tow.  
  
The door slammed shut, and left them in a sparsely furnished, dimly lit room. 


	5. Intermission: "Flawed Perfection, Flawle...

Yoster   
Thursday, 20 September, 2001   
10:51:16 PM, PST   
flawed perfection, flawless abomination   
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a small intermission since I really haven't worked on this story for the longest time. It has nothing to do with 'A House Divided,' aside from being within it and the coinciding characters. Think of it as AHD: Gaiden or summat. Enjoy!   
  
  
X knelt down in the pew and bowed his head.   
  
"I don't really mean to ask for much..."   
  
"A-As a matter of fact, I've never really done this before..."   
  
"If you'd just..."   
  
"Please..."   
  
A hand grabbed his shoulder. Gasping, X turned around.   
  
"Zero?"   
  
The blond hunter, dressed in his casual gear, smiled at him.   
  
"What are you doing here, X?"   
  
"I just felt I should.. the funeral was only a week ago..."   
  
Zero looked down. Nobody had seen it coming. Not even Cain. But by then...   
  
"I know, but.. we're reploids. Mecha. You know how the church feels..."   
  
"Cain wasn't like us. He was human. He raised me..."   
  
Both regretted not being there sooner. But Cain didn't wait, despite the danger.   
  
"I know he was like a father to you, X..."   
  
"He was my father. I never knew Dr. Light.. at least, I don't remember..."   
  
Cain did not realize the horror of the new breed of reploid he had created.   
  
"I..."   
  
The subject of fathers or creators or origins made Zero uncomfortable.   
  
He changed the subject.   
  
"But still, why?"   
  
"I don't know.. what else can I do?"   
  
The new reploid had free will, just like those before it. But it didn't have inhibitions, a conscience. A soul. He had made a fatal error...   
  
"You know you can always talk to me."   
  
"I know.. but what can you do?"   
  
Hunters had always had the first priority of defending human life. But not this one, this one without a soul. It's sole objective was self-preservation.   
  
"I can't bring him back..."   
  
"I know..."   
  
By the time Cain realized this, the only option was to deactivate it. But it wouldn't let him. Barely more than a skeleton and a computer, it rose up against its creator.   
  
"If you'd just tell me what I could do, I would."   
  
"I just don't know.. I just felt like praying, is that so wrong?"   
  
The alarms blared and the security forces scrambled. But the scene in the lab was one nobody would want to remember. Cain, or what was left of him, had died bringing his last reploid to life. His last mistake.   
  
"Not in my eyes.. But there are some who'd say..."   
  
"Everyone has something to say about reploids. I don't care."   
  
Cain was gone. It was gone. X and Zero were left to pick up the pieces.   
  
"No matter what they say.. we're alive. We're beings."   
  
"We're alive. But what about when we die?"   
  
The soulless reploid disappeared. The demon, vanished. Everyone was too stunned about the present to worry about the future. To worry about its return.   
  
"..."   
  
Zero didn't know. He never knew. Nobody did. Did reploids just shut off like a desktop computer? Did they degenerate to a simple cluster of 1s and 0s and metal? Did they live on?   
  
X waited for a response.   
  
The church had called it unthinkable. No machine could ever do that. This was, of course, why there weren't too many reploids seen in and around places of worship. But some believed...   
  
X looked into Zero's eyes. Wanting, needing any sort of reply.   
  
Zero pulled X into his arms and held him tight.   
  
"I'll never let you die."   
  
Zero knew this was a promise he couldn't keep. So did X. But they both didn't care.   
  
There were too many questions, and not enough answers. All they could count on now was each other.   
  
"...thank you."   
  
X went back to his silent petition.   
  
Zero sat, contemplating, and, for the first time, knelt down and prayed alongside X.   
  
A figure watched from outside the rose stained-glass windows.   
  
"Disgusting."   
  
It was incomprehensible. Love. Spirit. Why? What purpose do they serve? They don't further self-preservation. They're excessive and unnecessary. These 'great hunters' had only flaws.   
  
"The old fool was wrong..."   
  
It hopped off the windowsill, recalling the last words spat by his creator.   
  
"They're the abomination.. not I."   
  
Steps echoed from the shadows of the imposing cathedral.   
  
"And I'll prove it."   
  
END 


End file.
